Livro de ascamot (Book of Regulations): On a Banned Book

3 Elul 5426 [September 3, 1666]

In meetings of the community’s Mahamad [board of governors], past and present, discussions were held about a book that Gideon [Abudiente] ordered printed concerning the end of days (Fin de los Días). And believing that it could be prejudicial to us with regard to the gentiles, [the Mahamad] decided that all these books should be withdrawn, whether bound or in loose form, and ordered that the treasurer be told, on pain of beraḥa [excommunication], that he bring them all, with none remaining (only the manuscript) to the president’s house and there they shall be packed and sealed, remaining in the community chest until such time as we hope God grants it auspicious for them to be given back to him.

In the said meeting, it was decided unanimously that no one may have a book or any other item published without so notifying the Mahamad then serving, and without its being redacted by the aforementioned, and without a license being issued for its printing, or else it cannot be printed, and anyone who does so, will pay a fine of twenty rijksdaalders [fifty guilders] to the general coffers and this sum shall be collected without exception, and it shall be at the discretion of the Mahamad whether to permit or prohibit it.